ination. Now it is manifest, according to
what has been said (Q. 41, A. 2), that the Father does not beget the
Son by will, but by nature; and also that the Father's nature was
perfect from eternity; and again that the action whereby the Father
produces the Son is not successive, because thus the Son would be
successively generated, and this generation would be material, and
accompanied with movement; which is quite impossible. Therefore we
conclude that the Son existed whensoever the Father existed and thus
the Son is co-eternal with the Father, and likewise the Holy Ghost is
co-eternal with both.

Reply Obj. 1: As Augustine says (De Verbis Domini, Serm. 38), no mode
of the procession of any creature perfectly represents the divine
generation. Hence we need to gather a likeness of it from many of
these modes, so that what is wanting in one may be somewhat supplied
from another; and thus it is declared in the council of Ephesus: "Let
Splendor tell thee that the co-eternal Son existed always with the
Father; let the Word announce the impassibility of His birth; let the
name Son insinuate His consubstantiality." Yet, above them all the
procession of the word from the intellect represents it more exactly;
the intellectual word not being posterior to its source except in an
intellect passing from potentiality to act; and this cannot be said
of God.

Reply Obj. 2: Eternity excludes the principle of duration, but not
the principle of origin.

Reply Obj. 3: Every corruption is a change; and so all that corrupts
begins not to exist and ceases to be. The divine generation, however,
is not changed, as stated above (Q. 27, A. 2). Hence the Son is ever
being begotten, and the Father is always begetting.

Reply Obj. 4: In time there is something indivisible--namely, the
instant; and there is something else which endures--namely, time. But
in eternity the indivisible "now" stands ever still, as we have said
above (Q. 10, A. 2, ad 1; A. 4, ad 2). But the generation of the Son
is not in the "now" of time, or in time, but in eternity. And so to
express the presentiality and permanence of eternity, we can say that
"He is ever being born," as Origen said (Hom. in Joan. i). But as
Gregory [*Moral. xxix, 21] and Augustine [*Super Ps. 2:7] said, it is
better to say "ever born," so that "ever" may denote the permanence
of eternity, and "born" the perfection of the only Begotten. Thus,
therefore, neither is the Son imperfect, nor "was the